Hospital accreditation and faculty disclosure at Mayo Clinic

Hospital Administration

The Mayo Clinic is one of the most famous hospitals in America, and its name is recognized by over 85% of Americans. The Clinic has several offices, but their most noted one is in Rochester, Minnesota. This particular location is the one most people think of when they hear someone mention the "Mayo Clinic." Their website, Mayoclinic.com, is also extremely popular, and has a great deal of credibility with the public because of the name (Twite, 2002).

The Mayo Clinic is an accredited hospital, meaning that it is recognized as conforming to the high standards that are set by the medical community. The Clinic is not without problems, however. All hospitals have some issues that others would like to see resolved. Accreditation committees look for these kinds of problems, and want to know what the hospital is going to do about problems that are found. Failure to correct the problems found by the accreditation committee could result in the loss of the hospital's accredited status.

One of the things the committee looks for is the relationship between any of the faculty members and medical or pharmaceutical organizations, or related companies. The Mayo Foundation makes sure that it discloses all of the relationships its doctors have with any company, so that the relationship is not misconstrued by someone who would not be expecting it (Faculty, 2001). The main issues that are included in a disclosure of this nature are objectivity and balance. The Foundation strives to be fair to all companies and manufacturers, while realizing that some are going to have more devices or medications to talk about than others.